Hyundai Motor Group posted last year’s operating profit high enough to overtake Germany’s Volkswagen Group, marking its first entry into the global top two automakers by profitability, industry data showed.
Despite the impact of U.S. auto tariffs, the group was seen as protecting margins through steps such as adjusting local production volumes, diversifying markets and moving quickly to reduce inventories.
According to the industry on Tuesday, Hyundai Motor Group — Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis — sold 7.27 million vehicles worldwide last year, ranking third in global sales behind Toyota Group (11.32 million) and Volkswagen Group (8.98 million). General Motors ranked fourth with 6.18 million vehicles, followed by Stellantis with 5.48 million.
While Hyundai ranked third by volume, it moved up one place to No. 2 in profitability, surpassing Volkswagen.
Toyota, the global sales leader, also ranked first in key financial indicators, reporting revenue of 50.4508 trillion yen (471.2 trillion won) and operating profit of 4.3128 trillion yen (40.2 trillion won). Because Toyota uses a different accounting basis, the figures combine the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and the first through third quarters of fiscal 2025.
Hyundai Motor Group reported last year’s revenue at 300.3954 trillion won and operating profit at 20.5460 trillion won.
That operating profit exceeded Volkswagen Group’s 8.9 billion euros (15.3 trillion won), the first time Hyundai’s annual operating profit has topped Volkswagen’s. Volkswagen reported revenue of 321.9 billion euros (551.9 trillion won) over the same period.
GM reported revenue of $185.0 billion (272.2 trillion won) and adjusted operating profit of $12.7 billion (18.7 trillion won). Stellantis posted a loss of 840 million euros (1.4 trillion won).
Hyundai’s operating margin, another profitability measure, was about 6.8%, ranking second globally behind Toyota’s 8.6%. Hyundai’s margin was more than double that of Volkswagen, at 2.8%.
The data also showed Hyundai bore lower tariff costs than Toyota, even though Toyota’s U.S. auto tariff rate was reduced to 15% earlier than South Korea’s.
Based on tariff-cost tallies released by the companies, Hyundai Motor Group paid a total of 7.2 trillion won in tariffs — 4.1 trillion won for Hyundai Motor and 3.1 trillion won for Kia. Toyota reported total tariff costs of 1.2 trillion yen (11.2 trillion won) last year.
An industry official said most automakers were hit hard by U.S. auto tariffs, but Hyundai “sold less than Volkswagen while achieving a higher operating margin,” adding that the results showed Hyundai is no longer competing only on value for money.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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